Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 3:05 am Post subject: are there many jobs around to teach older kids and adults?

hi there
am now teaching in suwon 5-14 year olds and am finishing in november. have had a really cool time and was thinking about staying in korea and teaching an older age group possibly. i wondered are there generally many jobs around as most i came across were for younger. and would they be split shifts etc. also have heard good stuff about uni jobs does anyone know more about these

If you wanna teach adults split-shifts are inevitable. Plus you will probably find that your monthy wage is far lower than any kiddy hogwan. That being said, kids won't take you out for drinks and dinner...take the good with the bad.

I teach mainly adults and middle school kids (4 adult classes a day, 2 middle school, and an additional two classes of elementary school kids on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, for 2.0 a month - perhaps not the sweetest contract in the world , but I have super bosses, great classroom support, a huge apartment with an oven, etc.).

I can't speak to the availability of this sort of job, but I certainly find teaching the middle schools and adults a lot less taxing. There's pros and cons to teaching both younger and older age groups (I've heard horror stories about older adjumma classes), but I find overall teaching adults requires less prep time. They never demand games, I usually have some common ground on which to base a class discussion on, and occasionally, they will demand to treat me to dinner and drinks.

Middle school kids are in my experience, very very quiet. Getting them to talk is like pulling teeth. This may or may not bother you.

I do work a split shift. It does suck, especially when the alarm goes off at five thirty. However, your morning students are likely to be in just as hard shape, if not harder shape than you. Also, I find teaching adults can be more rewarding, as some of my students use English regularly in their jobs, and can't wait to tell me stories about how they were able to successfully communicate with overseas offices, etc.

Of course, not everyone has positive experiences teaching adults, and like any hogwan teaching experience, a lot will depend on the management of the school. I teach at a very efficiently run school, and I find that it attracts serious students, rather then ones just killing time, hoping to increase their toiec scores through sheer luck. Try yourself out on a pretend split shift for a week. Get up at 6 am, stay awake until 8 or 9, then nap, whatever, until you start at your regular time. If you teach adults you'll probably be teaching until 9 at night. Stay at your school until then. Then (and this is the important part) get up the next morning and do it again. If you survive a week of this, you may be cut out to teach adults.